“It didn’t take much to buy a House vote, only about $130 billion in so-called sweeteners,” says Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president, referring to the 58 members of Congress who changed their vote from 'no' to 'yes' in support of the bailout bill. “So now the House has joined the Senate in taking $700 billion-plus worth of Main Street’s money to bail-out Wall Street. Congress spent money it doesn’t have to get reluctant members to vote even more money that they don’t have."

"Sen. John McCain claims he can provide leadership, but he panicked in the face of cries that the sky is falling from Wall Street investors who made bad investments, and the taxpayers are going to pay over $700 billion for his lack of leadership," says Libertarian Party Presidential Nominee Bob Barr.

"Sen. McCain claims he will change Washington by eliminating 'earmarks', but he just voted for more than $103 billion dollars of bold-faced earmarks," says Barr.

Just one week ago, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was demanding that Congress grant him unprecedented, unreviewable authority to spend $700 billion or more to bail-out Wall Street. But in a major rebuke to the administration and to both the Republican and Democratic congressional leadership, the House voted down the 110-page plan that emerged from last weekend´s frenzied — if not unseemly — effort by Mr. Paulson to salvage a bailout deal.

“Few people thought it could be done, but members of Congress listened to the people rather than the establishment to vote down the proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street," notes Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee. “Their courageous action gives us a chance to start over. Our starting point should not be a government bailout. It should be a market work-out,” says Barr.

The Libertarian Party is America's third largest political party, founded in 1971. Our vision is for a world in which all individuals can freely exercise the natural right of sole dominion over their own lives, liberty and property by building a political party that elects Libertarians to public office, and moving public policy in a libertarian direction.